A photo tour through New Westminster, BC - Royal City - 49°12′25″N 122°54′40″W

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Sternwheeler

Today starts a photo tour of the Samson V Museum.

Samson V was the last steam-powered sternwheeler to operate in Canada, the last of a line of sternwheeler snag-boats built for the federal Department of Public Works. This ship patrolled the lower Fraser River for nearly 40 years, maintaining government docks and aids to navigation, conducting water flow surveys and soundings, as well as her principal business of keeping the waterways clear of snags and deadheads which imperiled shipping and damaged port infrastructure.

The Samson V was originally built by Mercer's Star Shipyards in New Westminster in 1937. Her hull was heavily built of creosoted Douglas fir, and the ship contains many steel components originally fitted to her predecessors the Samson II of 1904, the Samson III of 1914, and the Samson IV of 1924.

The Samson V was retired in 1980, and opened as a museum in 1983. It is docked at the New Westminster Quay.